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Souls
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1996) |appearances = • • • |related = Soul devouring, The Health coil, Spectral Realm, Soul basins, Soul well, Soul conduits }} Souls are the eternal, non corporeal spirits of most, if not all lifeforms on Nosgoth. Souls live on after death, when they cross over to the Spectral Realm. Souls feature throughout the Legacy of Kain '' series, most notably in the ''Soul Reaver arc as Raziel had to consume souls to survive. Role Souls were first featured in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, where they ability of Souls to live beyond the physical death of the body was part of the background to the story and an often seen part of gameplay, with souls presented as a semi-transparent figures. Three of the major characters of the story were beyond death and in the initial chapters of Blood Omen, Malek's soul was imprisoned in within his armor for his failure to prevent the slaughter of the circle, Ariel's soul trapped at the Pillars of Nosgoth by their corruption, and Kain assassinated and his soul offered a chance of vengeance and resurrection (as a vampire) by Mortanius. As well as this, many enemy characters were observed in a similar manner, as after Kain had killed enemy combatants he could re-visit a room and it would be populated with Undead ghost versions of the living inhabitants, which could be fed upon when defeated, providing Blue Blood which filled Kain's Magic energy. Souls were also mentioned in dialogue relating to several items and spells. The Wraith smiths responsible for the Spirit forges were acknowledged to "forge their items with forfeit souls" and Elzevir was noted to manipulate Souls, imprisoning the soul of the Princess of Willendorf in a doll. Kain could also extract Souls himself using the Spells Control Mind, Spirit Death and Spirit Wrack, all of which forcibly displaced an enemies soul ( two of which could allow Kain to control the vacant corpse). Alongside this, the Soul Reaver blade was noted to "feed on the souls of any creature it strikes" and the Wraith Armor as "tempered from the seething agony of tortured souls". Raziel fed on Souls throughout the Soul Reaver arc and consuming souls filled his Soul Spiral health guage. Feeding on the souls of his brothers would also grant him new abilities . As Raziel's Soul was consumed by the Reaver , it inherited his soul consuming abilities, becoming the Soul Reaver . Souls apparently had their origin in the Elder God 's Wheel of Fate ; the cycle of life, death and rebirth. All of Nosgoth's inhabitants apparently had souls. The soul of a Human , Vampire or other creature inhabited the body until death when it departed for the Spectral Realm . (although Wraiths such as Raziel could apparently observe souls lingering in the Material Realm for a short while.) Whilst humans die and release their souls to the Wheel of Fate, the Blood Curse means vampires are immortal and their souls are "imprisoned in the flesh" which clogs the Wheel of Fate. Their Souls can only be liberated by death. When Souls reached the Spectral Realm they could be fed upon by agents of the Elder God, (such as Raziel and the Archons) and would presumably be respun in the Wheel of Fate. Whilst in the Spectral Realm however, the souls were vulnerable to soul scavengers such as Sluagh and Vampire Wraith. Vampire souls, if left in the Spectral Realm long enough could grow accustomed to it and become Vampire Wraiths. The relationship between Souls and ghosts is unclear though it appears that some souls (perhaps those with 'unfinished business') were able to manifest in the Material Realm. Notes *Souls in the Legacy of Kain series appear to follow the traditional beliefs about Souls . *Souls have varied in appearance throughout the series; Soul Reaver depicted souls as green globes surrounded by green energy; by Soul Reaver 2 there were two types of soul; ordinary human and animal souls were green or yellow globes, while Demon, thrall and mutant souls had skulls embedded in them; in Defiance they were seen as silhouettes of the respective species with a glowing head; Blood Omen originally showed them as a transparent outline. *Souls that have adaptions to the Spectral Realm such as Vampire Wraiths and Sluagh do not become traditional souls retaining some sort of form and only becoming transparent upon 'death.' *Kain's incantations Control Mind , Spirit Death and Spirit Wrack , all forcibly displaced an enemies soul (though ''Blood Omen 2'' 's Charm ability did not). In a similar manner, Mortanius displaces Malek 's Soul and fuses it to a suit of armour. Raziel could also forcibly displace souls in Defiance, by ripping them out of the enemies body. *In Blood Omen some sorcerers could manipulate souls; in Spirit Forges, the Wraithsmiths forged their items with forfeit souls and both Elzevir and Mortanius showed talent for manipulating them. Indeed all of the vampires in Kain's empire are created by snaring souls and using them to inhabit corpses in a similar method to Mortanius' reveival of Kain. *What exactly the Elder God does with souls is unknown, he demonstrates a certain degree of power of life and death, although Raziel accuses him of being a parasite who is simply hungry, consuming the souls. *In Defiance Souls all humans have the same size soul, regardless of the humans body size. Some Demons in Defiance do not have souls, this lack of souls is not plot related; they were not included for issues of gameplay balance. SpiritDeathSoul.jpg|A Soul in Blood Omen, removed using Spirit Death. SRSoul.jpg|A 'Plain' Soul in Soul Reaver SR2-Souls-Human.png|SR2 Human Soul SR2Soul.jpg|A Soul Reaver 2 Demon 'Skull' Soul Hylden Soul.jpg|A Hylden Soul in Defiance Human soul.jpg|A Human Soul (Defiance) See also * Souls at Dark Chronicle (by Marie Walter). References }} Category:Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain Category:Blood Omen terms Category:Defiance items Category:Defiance power-ups Category:Items Category:Items and equipment Category:Legacy of Kain: Defiance Category:Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Category:Soul Reaver items Category:Soul Reaver 2 Category:Soul Reaver 2 items Category:Terms